Headlines

Matt Lewis

Four things conservatives should applaud in the immigration bill

1. Border security. In 2006, the Secure Fence Act appropriated $1.2 billion (which many thought was an inadequate amount) to build a fence on 700 miles of the southern border. Much of this fence was never completed. This led border security hawk and former Sen. Jim DeMint (now head of the Heritage Foundation) to offer an amendment to the DHS appropriations bill in 2009 that would have mandated the fence be built by December 31, 2010. The amendment passed the Senate, but never became law, much to the dismay of DeMint and many other conservatives.

The new immigration reform bill contains $4.5 billion to implement border security. A majority of the border security funds go toward actual fence-building or maintaining a physical presence on the border — physical, not “virtual” fencing.

2. E-verify. Conservatives have long complained about employers hiring illegal immigrants and getting away with it. This bill contains tough e-verify provisions — potentially the biggest deterrent in the bill to future illegal immigration and illegal immigrants not eligible for legalization remaining in the US. This is significant, considering that many liberals and civil libertarians (for whom immigration reform is an important issue) oppose it. America’s Voice, a pro-immigration group, viewed inclusion of E-verify as a “trade-off.” The ACLU obviously is not enthused about E-verify forming a part of the bill. But conservatives got it into the bill.

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

We have history on our side. Laws were made to address these things and then never implemented because the leftists started crying every time someone had their papers checked, and then the GOP folded like a cheap tent in response.

Even if these items were something to laud the rest of the bill is a disaster and not worth the little nuggets of supposed goodness.

They said the same crap in the 80s. They were going to go after employers who hired illegal aliens. They never did. It was a joke.

Blake on April 23, 2013 at 9:42 AM

They only went after Smithfield because they were openly exploiting the illegals. When the illegals were turfed out and Smithfield advetised the jobs, a very long line of US Citizens appeared looking for work.

After that, let someone tell you the illegals are here to do the work that US Citizens won’t. Dare them. Smithfield is not the only example.

Employers all over the country use foreign nationals to drive down our wages. I’m no union supporter saying this. Unions are just as bad as many employers.

All of that on the back of the fact that we have very badly designed labor laws that only help unions and thug employers.

I do like those things in the bill. I say we agree to pass a bill that requires implementation of border security and e-verify, among other things, AND THEN deal with the illegals that remain in the country.

That is a very fair and rational compromise. It is the same compromise we offered in about 2004 and you amnesty shills refused to take. Had you taken that compromise then, we would likely already have addressed the remaining illegals’ status.

So, are you willing to compromise? We are. If you accept the foregoing compromise, we can actually deal with these issues instead of all of the silly posturing.

E-verify is the biggest joke of it all. The businesses where it is needed most (construction and farms) wont’ be impacted by e-verify. They will continue working with subcontractors and issuing 1099′s to someone with a legal SSN.

I know a few states have tried to close the 1099 loophole, but until it’s done at the federal level, it’s a joke.

I don’t want a comprehensive bill, I don’t want a bill with any amendments or pork that benefit any one.

If there are Four Good Things, pass them one at a time. If they CAN be implemented and if the administration has the good will to implement them, and will not say there is no money to do what Americans and conservatives want, then we don’t move on to the next thing. Triggers are a trick.

The ACLU obviously is not enthused about E-verify forming a part of the bill.

And the ACLU ha already pledged to “fight this every step of the way”.
So we already know this is going to get tied up in court and have no idea how many parts of the requirement will remain standing in the end. Aaaand, the law even now only seems to require that the DHS Secretary have ”implemented a mandatory employment verification system to be used by all employers”–not that it actually be in use by all employers.

Pilgrim’s Pride (nyse: PPC – news – people ) has been outspoken over the years about the need for migrant labor. However, the company said it initiated the federal investigation that resulted in Wednesday’s sweep after instances of identity theft were first discovered at its Arkansas plant. It said it had terminated all the employees who were arrested.

Pilgrim’s Pride will not incur any civil or criminal charges, it said. The chicken producer voluntarily screens all new employees using the E-Verify program, formally known as the Basic Pilot/Employment Eligibility Verification Program, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security. The secretary of the department, Michael Chertoff, conceded that while E-Verify determines the authenticity of identification, it “cannot detect identity theft situations,” where valid forms of identification have been stolen and used by others.

The immigration proposal pending in Congress would transform the nation’s political landscape for a generation or more — pumping as many as 11 million new Hispanic voters into the electorate a decade from now in ways that, if current trends hold, would produce an electoral bonanza for Democrats and cripple Republican prospects in many states they now win easily.

Oh please. The ONLY part of the INSTANT AMNESTY bill that will be implemented is INSTANT AMNESTY – everything else will be quickly legislated away and/or completely ignored once the 20 MILLION new democrats added under the plan start voting.

The bill will hand the Democrat-Left unfettered control of Congress, the White House and many more states than they have now. And once signed, there will be nothing the middle-class, or freedom-loving American of any class, can do about it.

It is simply stunning that this Matt Lewis person deigns to instruct conservatives. It is stunning that the DC thinks he should speak for and to conservatives. And his claims are at least misleading, if not dishonest.

1. The bill may contain funds for a fence, but there is no mandate that the fence be built! Why should conservatives be pleased that they are about to be sandbagged again?

3. How naive are Lewis and Rubio? How long will it be before a liberal federal judge strikes down the provision that illegal immigrants cannot receive federal benefits? How long will it be before Schumer, Durbin, et.al., castigate Republicans for not allowing illegal immigrants to have health insurance? food stamps?

And Lewis still refuses to acknowledge that there is no mandated increased border security in this bill.

We don’t need faux “triggers.” We need border security circuit breakers in this bill, and there simply aren’t any in the Gang of 8 bill.

If these are four good things, then let’s see them cut out of the bill and offered on their own. If they prove to be such great things, then we can take a look at the other parts of the bill separately next year or whenever. Right? Y’all would be willing to pass these fabulous parts without the controversial bits?